Four clutch free throws by Tamaqua's Tara Rottet in the last 21 seconds last night gave the Blue Raiders a hard fought 58-57 win over Nazareth and the third spot in the District 11 Class AAA girls' bracket.

In the opener of the twinbill at Panther Valley High School, Schuylkill Haven posted a 62-55 win over Jim Thorpe for the third spot in Class A.

Tamaqua entered the final period with a 47-44 lead, but a bucket by Trischia Gostony cut the Blue Raider lead to 54-53 with 27 seconds to play. Rottet hit both ends of a one-and-one, but a field goal by Nazareth's Andrea Hartman cut the lead back down to one with 12 seconds left on the clock.

The Blue Eagles were forced to foul and Rottet responded by hitting another one-and-one. A bucket by Robin Moyer with a second left cut the final margin to one.

Led by the crisp passing of Gostony and the inside scoring of Moyer, it looked for a while like the Blue Eagles would have little trouble in locking up the third spot in the district as Tamaqua fell behind 11-4 with 4:08 left in the first period.

Nazareth established the seven-point lead thanks to a pass from Gostony that found Moyer wide open underneath the basket. Gostony and Moyer teamed up again with 1:43 left in the first quarter for a 15-9 lead before Tamaqua's Lisa Cunningham connected on a layup with five seconds left.

Rottet and Cunningham each netted six points in the second period as the Blue Raiders closed the gap to 35-32 at halftime. The lead did change hands several times in the quarter, but field goals by Becky Roth and Mona DiSante in the final 25 seconds of the half restored the Nazareth lead.

The Blue Eagles led throughout the third period until Kim Heisler gave Tamaqua the lead with two free throws with 35 seconds left. Gostony gave Nazareth a 37-32 lead at the start of the period with a long jumper, and a sharp inbounds pass by Gostony led Hartman an easy hoop for a 44-38 Nazareth lead with 1:56 left.

The Blue Raiders jumped to a 53-46 lead with 2:23 left to play on a Heisler layup, but Gostony hit two buckets and DiSante added a third to pull Nazareth to within 53-51 with 1:27 left. The Blue Eagles later closed the gap to within one on two separate occasions with Gostony and Hartman field goals, but Rottet's foul shooting proved to be too much.

Carla Kemmerer led Tamaqua with 17. Rottet had 12 and Cunningham and Wendy Willing had 10 each. Moyer led all scorers with 21. Gostony had 14 and Hartman added 10.

In the opener, Schuylkill Haven opened a 44-24 lead with 2:05 left in the third period on a Angie Miller field goal. Four points by Sheri Nothstein and two more by Debbie Sebelin helped Jim Thorpe close the gap to 44-30 with 56 seconds left in the third.

A three-point play by Sebelin with 2:18 to play and pair of free throws by Lori Farrell only seconds later left Schuylkill Haven with a 58-51 lead with 2:12 left. Two straight buckets by Schuylkill Haven put the game out of reach for the Olympians.

Miller led the winners with 20. Kelly Ruff had 18 and Tammy Zimmerman added 15. Farrell led Jim Thorpe with 18 and Sebelin had 17. Nothstein chipped in with 10.